January Collage

Northern Pintail

A male Northern Pintail from the park today. A grey day, we're supposed to get a snowstorm tomorrow so I might have some snow pictures to share.

Abstract

I'm not sure I like this shot. A bit of soap/water residue in a brandy glass (the first time this glass has been out of the cupboard). Colour adjusted in PSP.

Snow

Taken with my 75-300mm zoom lens. Kids are sliding on whatever hills they can find. In spite of St. John's being a hilly city, there are not many places to go sliding.

Just a Boat

Just a boat in a small community called Portugal Cove. A grey day here today, not much colour in the photo so I changed it to B&W.

Magic Marker

I was working on some "blue" shots for the current challenge at DPC. I had this idea in my mind but I wasn't pleased with how it turned out. It's over exposed and no matter how many times I tried, I couldn't get it to look right.

Remotely Controlled

Does everyone else have as many remote controls as we do? These were just the ones I took from the family room, I am sure there are more in the house.

Icy Dock

Another ice picture from yesterday.

Ice

The high winds and cold temperatures we had 2 days ago meant a lot of ice along the coast. Today I drove about an hour to photograph the icy scenes. This ice was all caused by the ocean water spraying over the shed and dock.

Pasta

Just trying out different ways of photographing pasta, these were 2 of my favourite shots from my experiments.

Waves and Wind

Today was a very windy day with winds gusting from 100 to 120 kilometres per hour and Environment Canada issued a storm surge warning for our area. We decided to go for a drive to look at the waves! This photo was taken at St. Philip's beach, about 20 minutes from the city. I'm not sure why the person decided to park that close to the end of the wharf and get salt water sprayed all over his vehicle.

Home Sweet Home

Loretta posted a picture of her house on her blog so I thought I would do the same. It doesn't look very big from the front but it is over 2000 square feet on one level (not including the garage). My partner, Joe, and I had it custom built for ourselves and we've lived here since September 2002. We love the area, it is centrally located in the city, close to everything and it's a quiet neighbourhood, which we like. I'll admit this picture was taken yesterday, today we had a bit of snow and after clearing the driveway and walkway of snow I wasn't in the mood to take pictures.

Road to the Lighthouse

This is sort of the picture I wanted to submit to the DPC "Road" challenge. But the weather didn't co-operate and then I got sick, so I never got to take it. It was nice today and I was feeling a little bit better, so I drove to Cape Spear and took some pictures.

Mourning Dove

This Mourning Dove was in my back garden this afternoon. It's only the 3rd time I have seen a Mourning Dove in my garden or in Newfoundland. And one of those times was last week. I am assuming this is the same one. It's a little bit smaller than a pigeon and that's about all I know about Mourning Doves. Be thankful this showed up in my garden or my photo today might have been a box of tissues or something equally boring.

Remedies

When we're sick we try everything to help us feel better, at least I do. Most things don't really work and we have to just rest and let our bodies get over it naturally. But these "remedies" can help lessen the aches and pains a bit. I like to cover up in a warm blanket and read a book, drink plenty of liquids and hope I feel better soon. Of course I take the advice of my two nurse sisters and the little "Angel of Good Health" can't hurt, right?

Just Apples

Fake apples that I keep in a basket in my kitchen. I've done lots of shots with these apples, many better ones, but I am sick and this is the best I am going to do today.

Candle & Feather

I've taken pictures of this candle reflected in a mirror before, I thought I'd reshoot with this feather. It's a Snowy Owl's feather that I picked up off the ground at a nature park.

Crayon Colours

I guess I'm not the only one who buys things just so I can take pictures of them. I have no need for crayons but they were on sale and I knew I could take lots of pictures of them, so I got them.

Clouds Reflected

I took some pictures of the fishing boats across the harbour today, it was a mild 8ºC out with very little wind. I got a few nice pictures of the boats reflected in the water but my favourite is this picture of the cloud reflections. I would have preferred to include a little more of the boat but someone had an old t-shirt draped across it so I cropped it out.

Looking Out

In spite of another grey, cold day I had to get out and take some pictures. -1ºC and a wind-chill of -6ºC feels colder on Signal Hill. Overlooking the city on one side and the North Altantic on the other, it's a wonderful spot for sightseeing and taking pictures. And there is always someone on Signal Hill, no matter what the weather or time of day. These two people are looking out towards Fort Amherst, the lighthouse at the entrance to the St. John's Harbour. As you can see we have no snow which is unusual for this time of the year.

Fog, Rain, Snow, More Rain

Welcome to life in eastern Newfoundland. Lots of fog, rain and snow, plenty of wind too. Another grey day here, I resorted to walking around my small back garden looking for something to photograph. I took pictures of the weeds in the snow just before it started to rain.

Some of you may have noticed that I added a profile picture to my blog. I am showing a larger version here. This is the first time I have taken a self portrait that did not involve me standing in front of a mirror. I pre focused on a flash head on a tripod, removed it, set the focus to manual, set the timer on the camera and got into place. This was lit with 2 side flashes, the first result and I was happy with it so I didn't take any more. I altered it in PSP, a bit of noise reduction and then some filters that I cannot remember right now. I have always been a shy person and, like most people, I don't like pictures of myself so I used the sweater and PSP filters to my advantage.

Wind-chill -10ºC

Very cold out today, that's why I didn't go out and take pictures even though it was sunny. This photo was taken from my computer room window. There's just no keeping the pigeons away from my bird feeders.

Sleeping Goose

Even though I live in Canada I don't see a lot of Canada Geese. There are 2 at a local pond now, this one was preening and sleeping while I was there.

Snowflakes

Snowflakes on my scarf (which I never wear, I just brought it outdoors to get this shot). Taking a picture like this makes me want a good macro lens, but for now I'll have to be satisfied with the lens that came with my Rebel.

Crazy Colour

Just a silly shot today. It was a grey day and I did not get out to take pictures. I couldn't get inspired to do any still life shots either, this was the best I came up with.

Backlit Leaves

I was trying a little backlighting photography, where the subject is lit from behind. I haven't tried much of this before. For this photo I put two leaves from my ivy plant (as you can see I am lax about watering) on my soft box. I had to tilt the flash head all the way up and turn the flash down to the lowest setting to avoid over exposing the image. I think it turned out pretty well for my first time trying this.

Colourful Homes

Downtown St. John's is known for its colourful row houses and steep streets. Here's a photo that shows both. We had a bit of snow last night after all our rain and the sidewalks are slippery, especially on steep streets like this. Thankfully the roads are pretty clear.

Same Photo, 2 Sites

This photo won "photo of the day" at two sites today, Picture of the Day and My Fun Photo Contest. It's the lighthouse at Cape Spear, the most easterly point of land in North America. It's only about a 20 minute drive from my house and a great spot to take pictures.

Goodbye to Christmas

Today was the day to take down the Christmas decorations and undecorate the tree (my partner thinks "undecorate" is an odd word). It also poured all day (taking away most of our snow) so there was no way I could go out and take pictures. So I took pictures of my ornaments....well, just this box of green ornaments. Sort of an abstract, I guess. The box is white and I found it interesting that the side looks green from the reflection of the ornaments.

Big Splash

I took a lot of photos today and didn't know what to post. I finally settled on this shot of waves crashing against the cliffs at Middle Cove Beach. It's hard to tell from the photo but the height of the foam is probably 30 to 40 feet.

Wood Duck

I think Wood Ducks are one of the best looking ducks with their bright colours. Every winter we see one or two in the city. This male wood duck is at Quidi Vidi Lake, quite comfortable with the other ducks and gulls.

2 Photos of the Day

I have two photos of the day today, this one of an old fishing boat at Shutterbugs ,


And this one at Picture of the Day. This was taken near Long Pond in the city.

In the Snow

We're having a bit of a snowstorm today. Not much snow is falling but the wind is making it stormy. I just drove around a bit downtown and took pictures out the van window, much warmer than walking around. This is Winterholme, a heritage inn, and it always looks pretty with snow around.

Photo of the Month

I just found out that I won "Photo of the Month" at this site:
Picture of the Day

It was taken from Ladies Lookout on Signal Hill in St. John's on December 1, 2005.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2006. I've titled this photo "The Sands of Time" and it obviously represents the passing of time from the old year into the new year.